It's 21C here today (I know) so took the dog for a long walk and spotted this bird - it keep attacking gulls and sweeping low across the park...
Used a digi zoom to get in close - hence the noise and blur but if anyone knows what kind of bird it is I'd love to hear from you
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Thursday, January 04, 2007
I need to take better pictures
I've been spending too much time in Flickr recently - getting turned on to really good photography... and by really good photographers.
Having no co-ordination means that attempts at drawing always end in frustration so photography is the closest I get to real artistic expression. Not that I've done much good photography it has to be said - but I like that too.
There's a discipline to photography that makes it an art that I feel I can attempt to master the art. A mixtire of science and dumb luck that means I always feel as though I have a chance of taking something great. And that practice can improve those odds of lucky accident.
I always said that lives need some passion and some beauty... and now I think that I mean it. I can think of nothing sadder than a passionless life and nothing crueler than an absence of beauty.
But that might be the wine talking. Time I think - for bed
Oh - scans being booked for January... a couple of weeks late - change of insurer and all but all in hand... this time am gonna photograph my innards and post them... nice huh?
Having no co-ordination means that attempts at drawing always end in frustration so photography is the closest I get to real artistic expression. Not that I've done much good photography it has to be said - but I like that too.
There's a discipline to photography that makes it an art that I feel I can attempt to master the art. A mixtire of science and dumb luck that means I always feel as though I have a chance of taking something great. And that practice can improve those odds of lucky accident.
I always said that lives need some passion and some beauty... and now I think that I mean it. I can think of nothing sadder than a passionless life and nothing crueler than an absence of beauty.
But that might be the wine talking. Time I think - for bed
Oh - scans being booked for January... a couple of weeks late - change of insurer and all but all in hand... this time am gonna photograph my innards and post them... nice huh?
I'm starting to miss the summer
mainly because this summer was the first since childhood that I'd had completely free. I was cancer free but still on 'sick leave' so I was healthy and being paid healthy amounts of cash... whiich meant that I could go and allow the grass to grow under my feet - an experience made all the sweeter by the knowledge that millions upon millions of people were locked under flourescent light, wasting time at cubicles and waiting for the weekend or a 'summer Friday'
I guess that this was the first summer that I actually appreciated. And now it's gone. Sure it's terrifyingly warm for January but I'm still left reaching for a coat and trying hard to negotiate my way out of at least one dog walk a week.
I think that's why I'm kinda yearning for a more flexible gig. I don't want to be bored in the office or too busy to notice life happening beyond the walls of my service. I wnat to be able to step outside when I want to step outside and have some time to think, to contemplate, to lay down in the sun and do nothing. I'm hoping that Jude's return to the workplace will allow me some of that freedom as it will probably move us out of the city and me into consultancy. There again we may decide that New York is too hard a place to leave... in which case I think that we'll both go 'part time' and enjoy longer, more languid days in the sun.
Here's to summer '07 huh?
I guess that this was the first summer that I actually appreciated. And now it's gone. Sure it's terrifyingly warm for January but I'm still left reaching for a coat and trying hard to negotiate my way out of at least one dog walk a week.
I think that's why I'm kinda yearning for a more flexible gig. I don't want to be bored in the office or too busy to notice life happening beyond the walls of my service. I wnat to be able to step outside when I want to step outside and have some time to think, to contemplate, to lay down in the sun and do nothing. I'm hoping that Jude's return to the workplace will allow me some of that freedom as it will probably move us out of the city and me into consultancy. There again we may decide that New York is too hard a place to leave... in which case I think that we'll both go 'part time' and enjoy longer, more languid days in the sun.
Here's to summer '07 huh?
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Another resolution
"Half as many meetings... twice as many decisions"
Feeling very chipper today - baked bread, took the dog for a walk, made the cat sneeze (somehow) and heard from some people I'd not heard from in an age... must be all of those speculative Happy New Years I've been throwing out to people that I've met and liked over time.
Work has yet to really kick in for me though I can see the start of some projects on the horizon - in the meantime I'm going to use the idle hours to do the research that I need for the books... that ought to keep me going.
Anyway am later than James Brown here (does that pun work?) so have to run to the JMZ - which will taunt me by holding the train I need just one stop away for hours on end - its headlights ablaze with possibility as more and more people arrive, lean out over the platform and - by force of collective will alone - drag it ever closer. It's long been my theory that the trains here don't run by electricity or diesel but by the collective nervous energy generated by people waiting. Should I have shared that? Oh what the hell - I shared Stool Softners, bloody bread baskets and the texture of the pieces of lung I coughed up - why start being coy now?
Feeling very chipper today - baked bread, took the dog for a walk, made the cat sneeze (somehow) and heard from some people I'd not heard from in an age... must be all of those speculative Happy New Years I've been throwing out to people that I've met and liked over time.
Work has yet to really kick in for me though I can see the start of some projects on the horizon - in the meantime I'm going to use the idle hours to do the research that I need for the books... that ought to keep me going.
Anyway am later than James Brown here (does that pun work?) so have to run to the JMZ - which will taunt me by holding the train I need just one stop away for hours on end - its headlights ablaze with possibility as more and more people arrive, lean out over the platform and - by force of collective will alone - drag it ever closer. It's long been my theory that the trains here don't run by electricity or diesel but by the collective nervous energy generated by people waiting. Should I have shared that? Oh what the hell - I shared Stool Softners, bloody bread baskets and the texture of the pieces of lung I coughed up - why start being coy now?
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
My new business card pic
limited in choice by the amount of pics showing my quadruple chin...
still here's the one I picked.... what do you reckon?
Hi-Ho
hi-ho... it's back to work I go - and whilst it's true that I won't be skipping merrily towards the train station this morning it's also true that I won't be crawling toward it full of dread and half baked reasons to turn around and head for home.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes before I really get busy on something - in the meanwhile I'll throw myself into a couple of minor projects and see just how shiny I can make them.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes before I really get busy on something - in the meanwhile I'll throw myself into a couple of minor projects and see just how shiny I can make them.
Monday, January 01, 2007
2007....
I had planned on heading down to the Coney Island Polar Bear Dip today - but as it's pouring with rain and 12C I don't think that I'll be able to get a picture as good as this one - so I'll use it instead and stay at home readying myself for a return to work tomorrow.
last night was fun - which is more than you can generally expect of a New Year's Eve. I didn't see the ball (or World Famous Bob's breasts) drop at midnight, I didn't see the fireworks - or hear whether Ryan Seacrest really said "2006.... out" but I was surrounded by bright, bubbly, drunk people - great wine, okay food and a glow of goodwill.
So here's to 2007 - thanks to all of you who have managed to stick with this increasinglt ego-centric blog over the past 6 months or so.... better writing to come this New Year I promise
last night was fun - which is more than you can generally expect of a New Year's Eve. I didn't see the ball (or World Famous Bob's breasts) drop at midnight, I didn't see the fireworks - or hear whether Ryan Seacrest really said "2006.... out" but I was surrounded by bright, bubbly, drunk people - great wine, okay food and a glow of goodwill.
So here's to 2007 - thanks to all of you who have managed to stick with this increasinglt ego-centric blog over the past 6 months or so.... better writing to come this New Year I promise
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Weighty thoughts at the turn of the year
I do find that New year posts tend to demand a thoughtfulness that I'm not prepared to give them. Retrospect is another of my weaknessess - I tend to disapprove of stories (repotage) and roar with laughter at annecdotes (and the racconteur). If it doesn't have a punchline dearie, don't bother (as I'm sure some Oscar Wile obsessed teen queen / pop star once lisped)
Of course the blog hasn't had an annecdote in an absolute age - which is why I'm rather looking forward to a whole new batch of tests in the New Year. All routine - but all neccessitating my meeting a fresh bunch of people, in stressful circumstance over a long enough period of time to cast them in my mind and give them lines to say that might not be accurate but are always truthful.
I've spent much of the morning trawling through the UK Pantomime scene - looking for John Inman, Christopher Biggins and of course - The Krankies. The Krankies are in Darlington this year (again) and will be glad of the work as television bookings for aging men married to midgets who dress up as small boys (only to be regularly 'put across my knee and spanked') are now few and far between. Though a small tweak to the act could see them pulling in $1,000s online.
Fot those as obsessed with UK D list celebrity as me here are some of this year's choicest panto pairings...
Sylvester (Dr Who 7) McCoy is in Reading with Christopher Lillicrap and a panda named LuLu... also it's not LuLu in blackface but who knows, maybe a special guest appearance????
Paul (Hi De Hi) Shane is with Michelle ('Allo 'Allo) Hodges in Peterborough proving that you can dine out off a catchphrase forever - Matt Lucas is this your future?
Gary Wilmott is with ex boyband star Lee Brennon in Derby
Linda (80s page 3 girl) Lusardi is with Leslie (Eastender, murderer and flasher) Grantham in Plymouth... Ladrokes are taking bets as to whether he'll kill her or F#%k her
Darren (living in my car these days) Day is in Billingham... they deserve each other
Toyah (it's a myth-stery) Wilcox is in Brighton... she used to be in Jarman movies, hoiw did that happen
Hunter from Gladiators is in Hastings - makes a change from being in Ulrika Johnnson I guess
Cannon and (Born again Xtian) Ball join Paul (70s sex symbol) Nicholas in Wescliffe on sea
Lisa (fat bird from Emmerdale who took over from Jeremy Beadle) Riley is ensuring the theatre looks full even before the concessions bus arrives lf in Southsea
Keith Harris brings green duck Orville and phlegmy monkey Cuddles to Fareham... hilarity will fail to ensue
The Fonz himself (Henry Winkler) joins wanna be Freddie Star impersonator Bobby Davro in Wimbledon...
Ruth Maddock (she's welsh by all accounts) is in Bath
joe pasquale will be squeaking his way through a 20 year old routine in Bristol
Bernie (the fattest) Nolan will be in the mood for dancing in Croydon
Whilst over in Guildford Stephanie Beecham will be trotting out her 'poor man's Joan Collins' schtick
Sadder still Patrick (Bobby Ewing) Duffy will be oiling himself up and greasing his way through Cinderella over in Woking - not how he expected his foray into theatre to end I would imagine
Lesley (isn't it funny when I play a grasping jew / elderly nympho?) Joseph joins some bloke from long defunct kids show Crackerjack ('Crackerjack!') in Wolverhampton.
Melvyn Hayes (It's aint half hot mum / bananaman) proves that Panto is an art over at worthing - catch him if you can
Even if it means missing the ginger duo of sonia and mark curry in horsham
I have to stop before I explode with the sheer awfulness of it all... I'd head down to Horsham - ginger wigs in hand and shout 'Where's Russ Abbott?' all the way through the first act - if I were you (this is a viewing suggestion only)
Of course the blog hasn't had an annecdote in an absolute age - which is why I'm rather looking forward to a whole new batch of tests in the New Year. All routine - but all neccessitating my meeting a fresh bunch of people, in stressful circumstance over a long enough period of time to cast them in my mind and give them lines to say that might not be accurate but are always truthful.
I've spent much of the morning trawling through the UK Pantomime scene - looking for John Inman, Christopher Biggins and of course - The Krankies. The Krankies are in Darlington this year (again) and will be glad of the work as television bookings for aging men married to midgets who dress up as small boys (only to be regularly 'put across my knee and spanked') are now few and far between. Though a small tweak to the act could see them pulling in $1,000s online.
Fot those as obsessed with UK D list celebrity as me here are some of this year's choicest panto pairings...
Sylvester (Dr Who 7) McCoy is in Reading with Christopher Lillicrap and a panda named LuLu... also it's not LuLu in blackface but who knows, maybe a special guest appearance????
Paul (Hi De Hi) Shane is with Michelle ('Allo 'Allo) Hodges in Peterborough proving that you can dine out off a catchphrase forever - Matt Lucas is this your future?
Gary Wilmott is with ex boyband star Lee Brennon in Derby
Linda (80s page 3 girl) Lusardi is with Leslie (Eastender, murderer and flasher) Grantham in Plymouth... Ladrokes are taking bets as to whether he'll kill her or F#%k her
Darren (living in my car these days) Day is in Billingham... they deserve each other
Toyah (it's a myth-stery) Wilcox is in Brighton... she used to be in Jarman movies, hoiw did that happen
Hunter from Gladiators is in Hastings - makes a change from being in Ulrika Johnnson I guess
Cannon and (Born again Xtian) Ball join Paul (70s sex symbol) Nicholas in Wescliffe on sea
Lisa (fat bird from Emmerdale who took over from Jeremy Beadle) Riley is ensuring the theatre looks full even before the concessions bus arrives lf in Southsea
Keith Harris brings green duck Orville and phlegmy monkey Cuddles to Fareham... hilarity will fail to ensue
The Fonz himself (Henry Winkler) joins wanna be Freddie Star impersonator Bobby Davro in Wimbledon...
Ruth Maddock (she's welsh by all accounts) is in Bath
joe pasquale will be squeaking his way through a 20 year old routine in Bristol
Bernie (the fattest) Nolan will be in the mood for dancing in Croydon
Whilst over in Guildford Stephanie Beecham will be trotting out her 'poor man's Joan Collins' schtick
Sadder still Patrick (Bobby Ewing) Duffy will be oiling himself up and greasing his way through Cinderella over in Woking - not how he expected his foray into theatre to end I would imagine
Lesley (isn't it funny when I play a grasping jew / elderly nympho?) Joseph joins some bloke from long defunct kids show Crackerjack ('Crackerjack!') in Wolverhampton.
Melvyn Hayes (It's aint half hot mum / bananaman) proves that Panto is an art over at worthing - catch him if you can
Even if it means missing the ginger duo of sonia and mark curry in horsham
I have to stop before I explode with the sheer awfulness of it all... I'd head down to Horsham - ginger wigs in hand and shout 'Where's Russ Abbott?' all the way through the first act - if I were you (this is a viewing suggestion only)
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